| 627 year, and the weather is cool and suitable for packing. Let the brethren for two hundred miles around drive their fat cattle and hogs to this place, where they may be preserved, and there will be a supply till another favorable season rolls round, or till the end of the labor.-Now is the time to secure food. Now is the time that the trustee is ready to receive your droves,-Not the maimed, the lean, the halt, and the blind, and such that you cannot use; it is for the Lord, and he wants no such offering: but if you want his blessing give him the best; give him as good as he has given you. Beds and bedding, socks, mittens, shoes, clothing of every description, and store goods are needed for the comfort of the laborers this winter; journeymen stone cutters, quarrymen, teams and teamsters for drawing stone, and all kinds of provision for men and beast, are needed in abundance.
There are individuals who have given nothing as yet, either as tythings [tithings] or consecration, thinking that they shall be able to do a great deal some time hence, if they continue their present income to their own use; but this is a mistaken idea; suppose that all should act upon this principle, no one would do ought at present, consequently the building must cease, and this generation remain without a house, and the church be rejected; then suppose the next generation labor upon the same principle, and the same in all succeeding generations, the Son of God would never have a place on earth to lay his head. Let every individual remember that their tythings [tithings] and consecrations are required from what they have, and not from what they expect to have sometime hence, and are wanted for immediate use.
All money and other property designed for tythings [tithings] and consecrations to the building of the Temple must hereafter be presented to the trustee in trust, President Joseph Smith, and entered at the Recorder's office in the book before referred to; and all receipts now holden by individuals, which they have received of the building committee for property delivered to them, must also be forwarded to the Recorder's office for entry, to secure the appropiation [appropriation] of said property according to the original design.
The Elders every where, will instruct the brethren both in public and in private, in the principles and doctrine set forth in this epistle, so that every individual of the church may have a perfect understanding of his duty and privilege.
BRIGHAM YOUNG,
HEBER C. KIMBALL,
ORSON PRATT,
WILLIAM SMITH,
LYMAN WIGHT,
WILLFORD WOODRUFF,
JOHN TAYLOR,
GEO. A. SMITH,
WILLARD RICHARDS.
Nauvoo, Ill. Dec. 13th, 1841.
From the Gospel Reflector.
CHARITY.
In consequence of our bold testimony and the much plainness and simplicity which we use in describing the apostacy [apostasy] of the church, we are often accused of not having charity for all people who profess to worship God according to the various systems of religion that are extant.
Therefore I think it necessary to insert a few remarks upon this subject, and set forth in plain terms some of the apostles' ideas of true charity. Some have supposed that it is impossible for us to be actuated by true charity, when we are so particular in describing the awful condition of apostacy [apostasy], that so many of the human family are in; and also when we contend that there cannot be but one right way to serve God, or in other words but one plan of salvation. Some say they have charity for all. Very good; but does true charity lead any person to believe that the doctrines of all societies are right, or that there is more than one true plan of salvation. The apostle Paul has given the following description of charity. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
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